David Chiu appears to be coming out in front of David Campos in the San Francisco race for District 17 state assemblymember, but the race is still too close to call, according to unofficial election results that came in late Tuesday night.
At around 11 p.m., Chiu campaign spokeswoman Nicole Derse said she was “cautiously optimistic” about the results.
Derse said the Chiu campaign is still awaiting ballots, with Chiu garnering 44,958 votes in comparison to Campos’ 42,561 votes with all precincts reporting but some absentee and provisional ballots still left to count.
Chiu and Campos both currently serve on the 11-member San Francisco Board of Supervisors.
Both men are Harvard Law School graduates, both are 44 years old and both are liberal Democrats.
Chiu has served as the president of the Board of Supervisors since 2009 received endorsements from the workers’ union Service Employees International Union Local 1021 as well as elected officials including U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein, Lt. Gov. Gavin Newsom, Attorney General Kamala Harris and Mayor Ed Lee.
Campos garnered endorsements from elected officials including outgoing Assemblymember Tom Ammiano, California Democratic Party Chairman John Burton, Public Defender Jeff Adachi and from labor organizations such as the California Nurses Association and the California Federation of Teachers.
Four members of the San Francisco Board of Supervisors up for re-election appear to have beat out their competition to hold on to their spots on the 11-member board, according to complete unofficial election results.
Supervisors Mark Farrell, Jane Kim, Scott Wiener and Malia Cohen all appear to have won their races.
Farrell received roughly 80 percent voter approval compared to 20 percent for District 2 challenger Juan-Antonio Carballo, Kim received about 67 percent of the votes against three District 6 challengers, Wiener roughly 77 percent against four District challengers, and Cohen about 45 percent voter approval, defeating District 10 econd-place finisher Tony Kelly and three others.
Supervisor Katy Tang was also up for re-election and ran uncontested.
As of late Tuesday night, Supervisor David Chiu was leading the race against Supervisor David Campos for a seat in the state assembly.
Either Campos or Chiu will head to Sacramento following the final result of the election, leaving a vacancy on the Board of Supervisors that will be appointed by Mayor Ed Lee.
Voters in San Francisco appear to have rejected a sugar-sweetened beverage tax on the ballot, according to unofficial election results.
The tax of two cents per ounce on the distributors of sodas and other sugar-sweetened beverages, known as Proposition E, would have been collected by the city to fund health, nutrition, physical education and active recreation programs.
In order for Proposition E to pass, it needed a two-thirds approval by San Francisco voters, but as of late Tuesday, the measure had received only 55 percent approval.
A similar measure in Berkeley appears to have won in Tuesday’s election, according to unofficial election results in Alameda County.
San Francisco voters appear to be supporting a measure on Tuesday’s ballot to increase the city’s minimum wage, according to complete unofficial election results.
The minimum wage, which was last raised to $10.74 in January, will gradually increase to $15 per hour by 2018 under Proposition J.
According to the complete unofficial results, nearly 77 percent voted in favor of Proposition J. The measure needed a simple majority for approval.
San Francisco Mayor Ed Lee released a statement on the voter approval of the ballot measure.
“Tonight, San Francisco voters sent a message loudly and clearly to the nation that we can take on the growing gap between rich and poor, we can give a well-deserved raise to our lowest wage workers, and we can do it in a way that protects jobs and small business,” Lee said.
The minimum wage in San Francisco will raise to $11.05 per hour on Jan. 1, 2015, and will continue to increase by roughly a dollar per year until 2018, according to the measure.
Voters appear to have rejected San Francisco’s Proposition H and approved Proposition I, clearing a path for the installation of artificial turf and nighttime lighting at athletic fields in Golden Gate Park, according to complete unofficial election results.
San Francisco residents appear to have approved the use of a multi-million dollar private donation to install turf and lighting at the Beach Chalet soccer fields on the western edge of Golden Gate Park.
Proposition H, which sought to block the project, was rejected by about 54 percent of voters.
A dueling measure, Proposition I, which allows for the installation of nighttime lighting and artificial turf during park renovation projects if an environmental impact report by city officials determines the changes will double usage of the site, was approved by roughly 55 percent of voters, according to unofficial election results.
Those who came out in favor of the turf and lighting project include the San Francisco Chamber of Commerce, the San Francisco Democratic Party, as well as the City Fields Foundation, which is managed by the sons of the founders of Gap Inc., William, Robert and John Fisher, among others.
Critics of the artificial turf and nighttime lighting in Golden Gate Park said that while it might allow more soccer players to enjoy the athletic fields later into the evening, newly designed real grass fields with below-ground drainage systems and proper maintenance would suffice while posing no threat to the natural beauty of the park.
Critics also said that nighttime lighting on the fields would be visible from Ocean Beach and would spoil one of the few naturalspaces left in the city.
Those who stood against the artificial turf and lighting include the Sierra Club, Golden Gate Audubon Society and 44 groups that make up the Coalition for San Francisco Neighborhoods, among others.
Two out of three transportation measures on Tuesday’s ballot in San Francisco appear to have been approved, according to complete unofficial election results.
The first of the three propositions, Proposition A, is a strategy to construct, redesign and rebuild San Francisco streets and sidewalks.
Seventy-one percent of voters approved Proposition A, which will put $500 million toward infrastructure repairs and improvements that increase Municipal Railway service reliability, ease traffic congestion, reduce vehicle travel times, enhance pedestrian and bicycle safety, and improve
access for disabled individuals.
The measure needed two-thirds approval to pass.
The second proposition that appears to be winning with 61 percent of the vote is Proposition B, a measure adjusting transportation funding based on the city’s population growth.
Proposition B will increase the amount of funding the city provides to the San Francisco Municipal Transportation Agency based on increases in the size of the city’s population, with those funds being used to improve Muni as well as street safety.
Proposition L, which proposed altering city policy regarding parking and transportation priorities, appears to have been rejected by more than 62 percent of voters, according to the complete unofficial results.
The proposition aimed to ensure that any proposed re-engineering of traffic flows by the city eased congestion.
Proposition L would also have frozen parking fees for city-owned parking garages, meters, parking tickets and neighborhood parking permits for five years.
Additionally, it would also have required the SFMTA to construct
and operate neighborhood parking garages using funds from parking fees and the sale of SFMTA passes.
Bay City News
